\u201cTrump accuses India of trying to extract billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid to sign for climate accord\u201d
\nINP
\nWASHINGTON
\nUS President Donald Trump unloaded on India among other countries during an epic rant on Thursday while announcing American withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord .
\nThe shrill speech, replete with claims of American victimhood at the hands of the rest of the world, casts a chill on Indian Prime Minister \u2018s expected visit to the White House later this month.
\nPhone and cables lines between Washington and New Delhi were buzzing on Thursday evening (Friday am in India) as Indian officials and diplomats took stock of Trump\u2019s direct, no-holds-barred attack in which he accused New Delhi of trying to extract \u201cbillions and billions and billions\u201d of dollars in foreign aid from the developed world to sign up for the climate accord .
\nAlthough dates for the Prime Minister\u2019s trip have not been formally or officially announced, the White House has penciled in June 26-27 for the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Modi+ . That expected meeting, if it comes through, will now take place under a cloud of misgivings, including the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown of guest worker visas that is adversely affecting Indian businesses, its squeeze on US manufacturing abroad that is forcing a scaling down of US investment in India, and now its withdrawal from the climate change accord after previous administrations dragged New Delhi kicking and screaming into it.
\nAlthough no one is talking of canceling the visit yet, Trump\u2019s harsh critiques have cooled the expected ardor between Washington and New Delhi that a small constituency of Trump bhakts+ in both countries had anticipated and forecast.
\nTrump repeatedly raged against India, China, and rest of the world on Thursday, casting the US as a victim of global machinations.
\n\u201cIndia makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries,\u201d he fumed in a 27-minute, 3000-word tirade in the White House Rose Garden while declaring that the \u201cbottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States.\u201d
\nThe US President then went on to claim that India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020 and China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants, but the US can\u2019t under the Paris agreement.
\n\u201cThink of it: India can double their coal production. We\u2019re supposed to get rid of ours,\u201d the US President fumed, arguing that \u201ccompliance with the terms of the Paris Accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on the US could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025\u201d – figures that are contested even within the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cTrump accuses India of trying to extract billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid to sign for climate accord\u201d INP WASHINGTON US President Donald Trump unloaded on India among other countries during an epic rant on Thursday while announcing American withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord . The shrill speech, replete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n